August 3, 2022
Hello Betty Sutherland Stewardship Volunteers:
This pleasantly cooler morning, Gary, Geri, Marlene and I worked at our newly marked 10x10 meter plot. Unlike other areas, we will be monitoring plants more carefully, counting the stems to keep track of the amount of each plant that we pull and keeping track of the density of any new plants we identify. We focused on removing hedge parsley, dog strangling vines, buckthorn, and even some older dried garlic mustard plants that still had seeds!
Marlene encouraged us to remove DSV from around the lonesome milkweed plant close to that plot, as monarch butterflies will mistakenly lay eggs on DSV and the caterpillars will starve when they don't have the food they need (they feed exclusively on milkweed). As we worked to clear that area, we discovered a baby milkweed plant! This is great news and we will continue to check closely in case we find more small milkweeds around.
In addition to the native plant, wildlife sightings from today also included a toad (see photo below) and mallards. We also had a lot of appreciation of our work from trail visitors. With the use of the new "Slow Down" signs (thanks Gary!), cyclists slowed down in our working area and gave us warning bells too.
For Sunday:
We need your help!
We will continue to remove invasive plants around the plot, but there is a really large hedge parsley patch behind the bench across from the 10 x 10 m plot that will be good to clear out, as there are several natives getting choked out, like golden rods and native wood avens. I suspect there are other native plants in that area too, so it will be interesting to see what else we will find. We will be taking before and after photos of this area to show our progress as well. There are many ways to get involved, whether it's with plant removal, photographing our progress, or plant IDing.
Special Note about Hedge Parsley: Unfortunately, the hedge parsley is going to seed, and as such, our practice of leaving the plant to dry to be used as mulch, is changing too. We will either bag the flowers/seed heads and leave the rest of the plant to become mulch, or if the plant is smaller and it is too difficult to remove the flowers/seeds, we will bag the whole plant to ensure we don't leave any seeds. I have attached a photo of a seed that got stuck to my shirt from today. They are know as sock destroyers and for good reason - these seeds even managed to attach to my rubber gloves! Remember to wear clothes that you do not mind getting worn down.
